A boycott following word that a young murder victim's v-mail was hacked will result in the closure of Britain's biggest newspaper.

A boycott by advertisers that included Ford, General Motors’ Vauxhall, Renault, Mitsubishi and others helped to bring down one of Britain’s tabloid powerhouses.

The Murdoch-owned News of the World will shut down, sending over 200 employees onto the street, as the result of a fierce backlash to revelations the paper had hacked into the voice mail of a teenage girl who disappeared in 2002 and was later found to be murdered.

The racy tabloid had also been accused of hacking into the v-mail systems of celebrities, sports stars, servants to the royal family and British government. In the search for gossipy headlines the paper had also breached the phones of families of soldiers killed in the Mideast, as well as those of people killed in the terrorist bombing of the London transportation system.

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But the demise of the News of the World came quickly after it was revealed that its staff had hacked into the v-mail of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old abducted while coming home from school. By deleting some messages, the paper led her family to believe she might still be alive – while also hampering the police investigation.